In recent years, route guidance devices for vehicles have been widely used. Route guidance devices are also called navigation devices. When a destination is input from a user, a route guidance device sets an optimum route from the current position to the destination and provides guidance along the set optimum route to guide the user to the destination. In addition, an external information center can distribute map information and related information to the route guidance device via the Internet. Therefore, the route guidance device can provide route guidance using the latest map information and related information.
Disclosed is a route guidance device including a visual recognition guidance device for detecting a visual line direction of a driver and an object of gaze using an eye camera attached in front of a driver's seat of a vehicle, judging whether the driver's visual line direction and the object of gaze are correct with respect to a route, and, in a case where it is correct, performing positive speech guidance and, in a case where it is incorrect, guiding the visual line of the driver. In a case where the driver's visual line direction and the object of gaze are incorrect with respect to the route, the visual recognition guidance device performs speech guidance to guide the driver's visual line to a branching road to be guided, by using an object that the driver is viewing as a reference (see Patent Literature 1 below).